May 29, 2001 (idea)

I’m a bit tucked after Memorial Day: precipitous news combined with merry revelry, magnified by a lack of coffee this morning adds up to a bit too much weekend.

It looks more and more like one of my housemates will be moving out in June. I have been looking forward to her departure for quite some time, even though I stand to lose money on a wager position, having bet that she would not actually leave. It was confirmed yesterday that she has purchased her ticket to Singapore, where she will take a teaching position in film history at a university there. This will be her first job since graduating with a master’s degree in video art last April. Anyway, her mother was out to see her this weekend, and thereby relieved the house of her passive-aggressive personality and allowed us all to enjoy the weekend a little bit more.

”Are you sitting down?” segues my father after we had discussed seven-gallon carboys, champagne bottles, and the Indy 500. It seems that he has been prone to fainting this past month, and while setting up for an ultrasound the tech could not get a shadow near his pelvis to resolve. Further scanning on other equipment has identified this shadow as a fist-size mass attached to his appendix and the small/large intestinal interface and pelvis. The biopsy of this mass has confirmed that it is cancerous. Last week, in addition to a barium enema and a bone marrow biopsy he had a harrowing MRIexperience. He has been advised to go with chemotherapy and this week will have more tests done to ascertain dosages. Treatment may start as early as in two weeks.